Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Seeing as my last post was exactly 3 weeks ago, 21 days.Since that time, a lot has happened, so I'll hit the highlights.

Student Life Camp:My youth group went to Durango Colorado, and more specifically Fort Lewis College, for a 'camp' of sorts. In the mornings and evenings, worship with more the 1500 Christians and some preaching. In the middle, serving in the community at Senior's homes, which was already set up for us. At night, our group would get together, have a bible study and prayer time.I love this camp, and it'll be my last year. If you're a youth, I would recommend this, at least just once during your youth. It's pretty impressive seeing how many other worship the name of Jesus.Back HomeSo after 2 more days on the road, we arrived back at home. An old friend who moved away was in town, work had hours for me, and the Dark Knight arrived, as well as a 'Institute for Basic Life Principles' conference every evening.Before I realized what was happening, it was time to pack for the trip to Reynosa Mexico.

Mexico/San AntonioThis was my 5th trip to Reynosa on a missions expedition, and by this point I always bring my towel. (Head nod to Douglas Adams)Our location was a little different. Previously, we stayed in a house and cooked our own food for the team. For the past 9 years, this was effective, but the house was finally sold. We discovered a Methodist Missions camp that is closer to our op site, and they cook for us.That's an improvement, and there was more room. So good change.The work team I was apart of was hanging ceilings in a side building, and that would last until 4ish in the afternoon.In the evenings, our whole group would return and have a service with the 'Prince of Peace' Igelsia (church) we serve, and the guys would go play soccer and then have a testimony at night. I played soccer. :D

Unfortunately, we fled across the border on tuesday night due to Hurricane Dolly. Rather then become stuck in the mud, we stayed in Pharr, Tx until about 11am on Wednesday, and then returned home. To a couple of other people and myself, who wanted to stay and help, this was not our preferred action. But God works things out, and we were let off the caravan in San Antonio, where we joined up with the Salvation Army and helped them service the first responders as tornadoes touched down across the city. The next day, they headed south for the hurricane relief, but paying for our transportation was outside the budget, so we went back north for home on a bus.

Sadly, my camera is busted. I had the brilliant idea of having a 6 year old Mexican child run with it and take pictures, he was pushed by an older kid, and it broke. Eh.

And the past 5 days, my Internet has been extremely cantankerous, and would not load .blogspot or .blogger domains. But we're back, and if you're reading this, thanks for sticking around!(Dark Knight review will be forthcoming)

Monday, July 21, 2008

Hey, I was pretty much entirely distracted the entire time I was home from Student Life Camp till I left for a missions trip to Mexico, so I didn't ever post.

Student Life Camp was fantastic.Batman: Dark Night was about as good as a movie gets without actually being great. Better then the Incredible Hulk, not as good as Ironman.Mexico: I'll be back later. :D

999 post!

Thanks for sticking around, we'll be back to push back during this election open season.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Quick note, so ya'll don't assume I was mobbed by irate mutant elephants and turned into potato salad over the next week.

I'm leaving today for Student Life Mission Camp with my youth group, in Durango, Colorado. I'll be back on the 14th, but it may be a few more days before I actually post.In the meantime, I'd like to recommend the blogs I reguarly visit, check'em out if you're bored.

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Independent: "The Government is to launch a campaign to stamp out Britain's waste food mountains as part of a global effort to curb spiraling food prices.

Supermarkets will be urged to drop "three for two" deals on food that encourage shoppers into bulk-buying more than they need, often leading to the surpluses being thrown away. The scandal of the vast mountains of food that are thrown away in Britain while other parts of the world starve is revealed in a Cabinet Office report today. It calls for a reduction in food waste: up to 40 per cent of groceries can be lost before they are consumed due to poor processing, storage and transport."

I think this is really simple, and this whole issue will do nothing but damage the slightly more expensive situation we find our world in.

A retailer puts food on sale to hasten it's sale. The lower cost for an item is a powerful incentive for every customer passing through the doors, often times weather they need it at the time or not. So that item gets moved off the shelf quicker.

Retailers, especially food stores, put stuff on sale to compensate for a lack of demand, excess supply, or to hit a narrow window of sales in time. Fruits and veggies? If they're not going fast enough, they get put on sale.

So discouraging retailers from putting items on sale? Ridiculous, and only results in less food put into the hands of consumers. Thus, it rots at the store where it has zero chance of being put to use.The next logical step is for retailers to lessen the supply due to decreased demand. So fewer bulk purchases from the farmers. Now the food can sit on pallets and rot at the speculators warehouse.Next logical step is for the speculators to realize decreased demand. So fewer speculative purchases the next season.Then the farmers are stuck with the burden of excess food, and can leave the food to rot in the field as fertilizer for the next season, where due to decreased demand, they grow less.

Friday, July 04, 2008

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

The foundation for this midsummer yarn is simple. Hancock is a man with super powers, including flight, strength, invulnerability, and speed. He's also a bum who drinks often, and though he saves people, he his hated by the general public for being reckless and destructive in the process. In return, he's a bitter man who continues to escalate this collateral damage he creates.
A PR rep whose life he saves takes him on as a challenge, to make a real hero out of Hancock. So Hancock goes to prison and is taken back out, as the LAPD needs his help.

Up to this point in the film, I was with it and loving it. Past this, there are quite a few twists in a rapidly accelerating plot, that for spoiler purposes I will avoid discussing.

From a film creation point of view, it's remarkable they were able to take such an invulnerable character and credibly make him both human and vulnerable. That they were even able to add in a threat to his life that didn't involve Kryptonite is even better.

For what this is, a popcorn movie that's going to kill the box office, it excels. Witty, sharp, action packed and with a plot from the pages of the comic books, Hancock is a good movie.
Good for 12 year old? No, and it's not oriented that way. Simply put, this is chock full of language, but not much else is objectionable. So 15+ crowd is the target.

I liked it, I was entertained and I feel like i got my monies worth.
Will I buy the DVD? Not likely.

"Gasoline nears $4 a gallon, and congress doesn't have an energy plan except 'turn on these light bulbs'. I yearn for the day when Americans took care of Americans by developing our natural resources...but those days have gone the way of Edison's incandescent light bulbs. We might as well turn out the lights, the parties over."

In case this has slipped under your radar, the new energy bill requires the use of Florescent light bulbs rather then incandescent bulbs by 2010, for enviromental reasons. The tyranny and hypocrisy of such measures is astounding.